ABC's shows do not pretend to deal with topical issues, and their premises are brazenly retrograde. Happy Days copies Dobie Gillis…. Laverne and Shirley's slapstick antics—usually built around wild schemes to earn money or meet men—are often indistinguishable from the adventures of Lucy and Ethel on I Love Lucy.

Upon closer examination, however, the new shows prove to be quite unlike the older ones whose formulas they borrow; plots and characters may be similar, but the message they deliver is not. ABC's blockbusters are downright obsessed with two subjects—youth and sex—that were never too important to earlier successful series. Obviously this twin fixation strikes a popular chord—for the Tuesday night hits win every age group in the Nielsen survey. The America they reflect is younger and sassier than the one that once embraced Lucy and Dobie. Happy Days' frantic pace is TV's equivalent...